It's been a while, but I've seen self-proclaimed anti-fascist rock and bottle throwers up close. It's sheer madness to dismiss or defend their actions.

And down-right defamatory to our heroes of World War II to make linkage between them and Antifa. These media elite morons can't see the differences between a World War and supposedly civil domestic protest?

Perhaps open war in our streets is what the Alt-Left cheering media is pushing for.

"When you spend enough time accusing everyone who doesn’t share your politics or even your race of racism, you make the term meaningless. That’s what the left did over eight years of Obama. By the time the election rolled around, Hillary was defining all Trump voters as racists and sexists. When you spend enough time crying wolf, eventually a real wolf appears. A real wolf showed up in Charlottesville." - Daniel Greenfield

I wish I had the school books my mom and uncles had in the 1930s. I read them as a teen spending summers on my grandma's farm in rural Kentucky.

What struck me most about them is how wrong the most learned scholars can be in interpreting current events or history in the short term. For instance, these text I read from the mid-1930s gave much praise to the fascists and communists of Europe for their progress in modernization of their countries.

Mussolini got the trains to run on time. Germany advanced public works, tamed hyper inflation. But less than a decade after those texts were written, the touted fascists had plunged the globe into world war.

I also read a set of encyclopedias from around 1911 pretty much from cover to cover. The idealism of America in the blossoming "progressive" age was fascinating. But the views, presented as current for the era, often conflicted or contrasted with the views of the era in which I read them, the late 1960s.

In reading such things, I formed opinions that have stayed with me. Among them: Societies that build on tradition, respect their past, and move forward in a measured direction tend to do well. Those that jump headlong into rapid change or that trust in revolutionary leaders who promote Utopian radical change often soon realize they've made deals with devils who take them down a destructive road.

Charlottesville's mayor wanted his city to be recognized as a "Capital of Resistance" to the Trump presidency.

Did Mayor Signer, Gov. McAuliffe, and perhaps other political higher ups let political ideology overrule any duty to provide public safety when they withheld police protection in Charlottesville on Saturday?

Law enforcement was on hand at the dueling demonstrations on Saturday, decked out in riot gear and looking prepared for the worst. Except they weren’t allowed to do their job. Police on the scene were reported to have been ordered to “not intervene until given command to do so,” according to the ACLU. That kept them from suppressing the numerous scuffles that broke out.

When police were ordered to disperse the alt-right rally, that act directed the white nationalists into the antifa demonstrators, leading to further street brawls. Police didn’t seem to try to get in between the two groups or suppress the fights.

As ProPublica reported, state police and National Guardsmen mostly stood aside and watched as the violence grew worse.

This appears to be a direct result of what appears to be a stand down order from higher-ups.

It is entirely plausible the political structure in Charlottesville, a city declared a "capital of resistance" to the Trump administration, wanted to cement its reputation with clashes in the streets. Political power structure also likely knew that media would dutifully report any violence that transpired could and would be blamed on "white nationalists."

When a mayor preaches doctrines of political extremism, no one should be surprised if opposing extremists eventually clash under his watch.

From earlier this year:

Mayor Mike Signer speaking outside City Hall earlier, where he declared Charlottesville a "capital of resistance" against Trump presidency pic.twitter.com/02RfBawAXH

Doesn't have to make sense. Little makes sense these days. MSM still seems unwilling to admit Antifa or BLM had a presence in Charlottesville.

Here's another gem: The New York Times claims women living under Soviet style socialism had more orgasms. Waiting in line for toilet paper is good for your sex life, ladies. Yes, the Times really does advance the claim.

This would be the same New York Times that, in the 1930s, looked the other way as Stalin carried out genocide by starvation in Ukraine.

America's political Left is going full-blown unhinged. And it seems to get plenty of back-up from many a so-called Republican.

Is there any chance whatsoever the madness can be reversed? No one wants to roll it back. The political establishment assumes Trump gets the blame as things go from bad to worse.

Don't let yourself get caught with an empty pantry if things go to hell real quick.

CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd warned that President Trump is agitating the government, saying during a Thursday afternoon interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper that the U.S. government "is going to kill this guy."

Mudd, who served as deputy director to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, said Trump's defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin has compelled federal employees "at Langley, Foggy Bottom, CIA and State" to try to take Trump down.

"Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. Government is going to kill this guy," Mudd, a staunch critic of Trump, said on "The Lead."

"On the home front, Russia paranoia is at the center of Robert Mueller’s intensifying probe of Trump and his political associates as he calls a federal grand jury to hear testimony — which implies that he some lined up. This opens up all kinds of opportunities for prosecutorial mischief, for instance going after every business transaction Trump made as a private citizen before he ran for president, and coercing Trump intimates into immunization deals in exchange for testimony, real or cooked-up, to enable the establishment’s ultimate goal of shoving Trump out." - James Howard Kunstler, who is in no way a Trump fan.

Here's another voice, from the political right, who sees potential for abuse by/of the Mueller grand jury.

If the political establishment indeed goes to the extreme of using tortured legal trappings as pretext to undo a constitutional election, there indeed will be hell to pay. Congress and others in DC would have done well to pay heed to the message voters sent last November, but DC seems so entrenched in its oligarchy and arrogance, it seems to be searching for off-the-scale ways to ignite full rebellion across the nation.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Online alternatives are hurting brick and mortar. But retailers are also hurting themselves by increasingly failing to carry in stores what people want or need.

A recent example: I went looking for gas grill last weekend to put on a new deck. Walmart was already in season close-out mode, with some gas models in the dwindling inventory selling for half what they had when the spring season opened.

Does Walmart seriously think people stop grilling by the first of August, that no one would shop for a replacement grill as late as Labor Day?

If on-site retailers only keep "seasonal merchandise" in their stores for half the actual season, it's like telling customers their business isn't wanted, and it forces consumers to turn to online alternatives.

I don't see a shift. I just see GOPe's phony facade of support crumbling. It never had his back.

People voted for Trump because they'ew fed up with Washington games, and most the Trump support (not all) came from the GOP voter ranks.

So what do Senate Republicans expect to gain by turning their backs on Trump, and refusing to follow the agenda he (and many senate Republicans) promised?

It appears Republicans on Capitol Hill are so arrogant they can't see disaster ahead. Or maybe, they want disaster, figuring if they sacrifice some members in the midterms, it means less work for those who survive being part of a perpetual minority Republican Party.

The P&G video is so one sided, and steeped in perpetuating stereotypes, that I have to wonder if it's not the product of corporate blackmail or some other threatened action against the company if it didn't show itself to be on the side of so-called social justice.